


Forever is a Skyscraper (Let's Leap Together)

by jazzypizzaz



Category: The Tick (TV 2017)
Genre: Crime Fighting, Dinosaurs, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Marriage, Paperwork, cartoon violence I guess, love!!!, sentimental speeches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 17:03:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19398544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jazzypizzaz/pseuds/jazzypizzaz
Summary: Tick and Arthur get legally married, for tax purposes.  They do the rest of the ritual a little out of order and in their own special way.





	Forever is a Skyscraper (Let's Leap Together)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Art for beta-ing!!! The real hero.

**Married**

“It’s a practical decision! We already live together.”

Arthur is so earnest, gesturing between him and Tick while he gives this unasked for explanation, that Veranda has to smirk a little. They’re here at AEGIS’s office for the annual renewal of their joint superhero/sidekick license, but this time are requesting additional bureaucratic services from her.

“Since the day we met!” Tick chimes in.

“Like two days after we met. Where did you sleep that first night anyway? Or were you on my bed the whole time?” Arthur turns to Tick, smiling fondly at the memory of this origin story of theirs.

Veranda gets the feeling they’re one of those couples that tell the same stories at parties year after year, the same little jokes and arguments each time, any audience there only an excuse for Tick and Arthur to revisit those moments together.

“Justice never sleeps!” Tick rebuts. Veranda has to admit she can’t imagine him at anything less that full energy.

“So-called ‘justice’ is never truly awake without an entire pot of coffee... What was I saying? Oh yeah, so as you are aware, we already have to refile, same as every year.” Arthur heaves one large binder onto the counter, titled “AEGIS License” with an array of colorful labels poking out along the sides. “What is this, the fifth time now? I think I’ve got it fully streamlined.”

“I'll assume it's all in order, as always.” Veranda smiles and tucks the binder away to take to the filing room. She starts inputting their approval form.

“So, we’ve been fighting together for years --” Arthur continues.

“And all villains tremble in our wake!” Tick claps a heavy hand on his shoulder. Arthur’s knees buckle, but he recovers rather quickly. Lots of practice.

“In _your_ wake,” Arthur mumbles. “But I, uh, help. I guess. Sshh shh I know.” Tick opens his mouth to protest Arthur’s self-deprecation, but Arthur placates him. Arthur turns back to Veranda. “Anyway, we already share all our expenses.”

“We share our lives, nay, our DESTINIES!”

“Or, Tick creates expense and I figure out how to pay… so uh, this thing we’re doing, it’s uh practical.” Arthur’s face reddens as he explains to Veranda. Tick, arm now around Arthur’s shoulder, pulls him in for a side hug. “A technicality. You know, for uh for tax purposes.”

Veranda could have butted in to reassure him at some point, that he didn’t need to defend this decision and it was a perfectly routine task for her, but now she’s sucked into watching their little back and forth. It seems rude to interrupt their dynamic even though they're ostensibly talking to her, and maybe Arthur’s defensiveness is more for his own sake anyway.

“And we both know how Arthur loves those taxes!” Tick shakes Arthur a bit with his usual exuberance.

“I don’t -- no one _loves_ taxes -- “ Arthur’s moth combs bounce around with Tick’s jostling, and a fond smile twists at his lips despite himself.

“You should see him every year. Buried in an avalanche of papers! A fortress of receipts and forms and awful awful paper!” Tick shudders in horror.

“Sounds like a good time to me.” Veranda smiles patiently. She’d long given up on her initial attraction to Arthur -- oh, how she’d dreamed of dates to the archives with him, up to their elbows in minutiae, tackling the tricky red tape together. It’s been so long since that first meeting though that she can’t imagine them with anyone else but each other now.

“What can I say, I’m a traditionalist.” Arthur’s bunny ears bob as he nods in agreement, as he stands there hand in hand with a giant blue amnesiac dressed as an insect. A traditionalist alright. “No online filing for me. So, uh, yeah. Today we're getting a marriage license.” A pause as the reality of that statement hangs in the air. Arthur blinks a couple times. “What was your question again?”

Veranda smiles indulgently. Whatever justifications Arthur feels the need to divulge, Tick and Arthur have been as good as married for years. _They already sound like one, that’s for sure!_

“Let’s see, I have all your identification already for the superhero license, plus the regular amnesia waivers for Tick -- still no progress on that right? So otherwise you’ll need the 8009T marriage license application form, the standard 70 dash 47 waiver, a check for the processing fee, signed statements with the most recent legal language --”

Arthur nods along, clearly checking off items in his mind as Veranda lists them. Meanwhile, Tick looks vaguely queasy, vibrating with frustration at the mere mention of such bureaucracy. Veranda would feel sorry that he’ll never know the joys of paperwork, but she relishes having this one strength over most superheroes. It’s the fun part of her job.

“For example, you’ll need the standard Fiery Blaze Act of 2005 clause for your marriage, required for all superhero-sidekick unions, that you will each do your best to protect your partner from lasers, pits of sharks, supervillain torture chambers, blah, blah and so on --”

“Naturally,” Arthur says, looking anxious but determined at the mere mention of all the danger his line of work brings.

“Plus the Friendly Fire addendum: stating that you will accept the risks of, for example, having to choose between saving a train of innocent bystanders versus saving your spouse, that your union won’t interfere with your superhero duties. Standard procedure.”

“Right.” Arthur heaves a second oversized binder onto the counter, this one labelled “Marriage!” in block letters. He flips through, double-checking. “Okay, check, check, check, check, oh the 90005-6A form for waiving the rights to rethink the union based on an evil backstory reveal -- you forgot to mention that one. Hmmm… the unpowered citizen’s protection clause just in case. I know I’m a superhero -- and newly re-registered! -- but I don’t have a Category so I wanted to be clear about the legal definition I’m claiming. You can’t be too sure…” Arthur chews on his bottom lip as he reaches the last form. “But is the Friendly Fire addendum really necessary? Wasn’t that voided in 2007 with the Honey Potter debacle?”

“As you’ll recall Honey Potter was revealed to be double-timing with the Red Scarecrow all along, so there was an annulment. The risk wasn’t choosing between the zeppelin of civilians and sidekick Buzz-ard, because the court rules that she was always planning to betray her.”

“Huh. With a name like that, you’d think someone would have caught on before it got so far.”

A giant yawn from Tick interrupts their paperwork nerd-out. “Why can’t we save both the bystanders _and_ each other? It’s what heroes _do_. That’s what Tick and Arthur do!”

“Of course. Of course you’re right,” Arthur smiles at Tick. Veranda can practically see the Tick’s buoyant optimism melt the anxiety right off of Arthur, like heat vision with warm fuzzies. “But yes, Veranda, we filled it out anyway. Everything in triplicate as requested. And the requisite seal of approval from the mayor, that we vow to protect the City above all. I assume you can act as our officiant and witness?”

Veranda double-checks her marriage license checklist, then smiles at them. "Arthur do you take Tick to be your lawfully wedded husband and superhero, til irrevocable loss of humanoid form, time displacement, interdimensional separation, or death do you part?" she recites in one breath.

Arthur takes a moment to catch up with her spiel, then says solemnly, “I do.”

Veranda turns to Tick. “And do you Tick take Arthur, et cetera et cetera, til death do you part?”

Tick grins. "With vigor and verve! Wherever destiny's sidecar swerves, we shall be in it, buckled in tight, ready to take over to steer it together, around the potholes of evil --" Arthur elbows Tick and mouths the required response to him. Tick makes a face. “‘I doo doo?’ That's hardly polite, Arthur. Miranda here is doing us a favor!”

“Miranda’s my sister,” Veranda explains patiently, as she does every time her and Tick’s paths cross.

“No, you have to say ‘I do’, Tick,” Arthur says.

“I do?”

“Good enough for me!” In a flurry of bureaucratic efficiency, Veranda stamps stamps. She files files. She checks checkboxes, then flips through the binder to where Arthur’s colored tabs demark required signatures for her to notarize. There’s a flash of light as a camera clicks. The printer groans out the photo along with a final certificate. She beams at them, handing it over. “Here you go!”

Tick and Arthur blink at her, dazed by the flash and the suddenness of it all. Arthur squints at the photo -- one of his antennas is bent and his face looks like he just swallowed a mouse, while Tick has his pained impatience-with-paperwork expression -- then back at her.

“Was that it?” Arthur says.

“Yep. I pronounce you superhero-and-sidekick!” she says.

“Hooray!” Tick shouts.

“And?” Arthur says frowning.

“And husbands,” she says gently.

“Great…” Arthur’s frown eases into a pleased expression. “Great, well that takes care of that.” He smiles up at Tick, and while Tick might not fully understand or buy into the social conventions and rituals involved in this simple bureaucratic act, he’s clearly happy that Arthur is happy. The way Tick looks at Arthur is with such reverence that Veranda feels like she’s intruding. Arthur’s expression further melts into something soft and open.

She almost looks away, but then blurts out, “You may kiss the groom! Um, I mean, that's part of the script. For officiant clerks.”

“Neat!” Tick says, but Arthur restricts it to an embarrassed peck.

“We’re at AEGIS! We should uh, should stay professional,” he mutters. His face is red, but he’s still smiling.

“Congratulations,” Veranda says, “on your entirely practical decision.”

\---

**Vows**

“Why do you villains never learn? Robbery is BAD! Stop your fiendish pilfering at once!” Tick crashes in through the glass doors to a cramped shopfront. Arthur, wincing at the damage, steps gingerly between the shards after him. “The Tick and plucky husband Arthur!”

There’s a warm rush in Arthur’s stomach at the word “husband”. Upon sight of the villains they face, however, this is quickly replaced by a rush of fear.

One of the three robbers lets out a huge roar, a mouth full of sharp carnivorous teeth chomping at the air in a display of intimidation.

Arthur responds, appropriately, by being intimidated. “Oooh god, oh god. Since when are there real life _dinosaurs_?”

Tick grins. “Don’t be ridiculous Arthur! Of course dinosaurs are real -- just like the moon or the rise of a new era for cornkind, or multiple Santa Claus!”

“That was a weird February, wasn’t it,” Arthur mutters.

“Let me guess. You are who they refer to as _Bridezillas!”_ Tick shouts at the robbers.

Tick and Arthur have recently taken to guessing villain names before the egotistical monologuing commences. Tick is usually way off-base, but apparently catching daytime tv at Goat’s store has upped his game. Arthur has to admit that’s not a bad guess in this circumstance.

The robbers pause at this interruption. They leer at the misrepresentation. “Nay, pathetic human-like creature! We are Ty, Ranny, and Saurs! The TYRANNYSAURS! We will soon rule the City, as dinosaurs once did long ago! As tyrants -- get it? Get it?”

“But you look more like velociraptors,” Arthur says before he can think better of talking back to ferocious Cretaceous-era villains who could easily eat him. “That’s the best you can come up with?”

“Ty, like Agent Rathbone?!” Tick’s antennas flick with confusion and surprise. “Is that you there, under all those scales and claws? Agent? Say it isn’t so!”

“No, you idiot! It’s a pun!” The dinosaur introduced as Ty roars with frustration. Another sweeps the last display case of jewels into her bag. The third charges at Tick. Her teeth make contact with his impenetrable exterior, gnashing ineffectively. Tick laughs.

Arthur, prudently, lunges to hide behind the counter. He almost slams into an elderly shopkeeper already crouching there.

Tick flails his arms until he shakes the dinos off. The dinos and Tick all crash out through the remaining glass and take the fight to the street.

“Are you okay?” Arthur whispers to the shopkeeper, breathing deep to keep himself from hyperventilating.

The wrinkles in her forehead deepen as she scrunches up her face. Otherwise unconcerned, she grouses: “If my insurance company scams me out of a claim for this, why I’ll…”

Great, even the innocent bystander is more calm about _literal dinosaurs_ than he is. Arthur slips her one of Flexon’s business cards he keeps handy. “I know a guy. Uh, lawyer. And, um, take it easy. You know, in case of- of shock?”

Arthur takes a few more deep breaths to keep his own panic at bay. The shopkeeper eyes him, not looking too impressed. “You’re supposed to be a superhero or something?”

Steeling himself, Arthur reluctantly stands up and creeps outside to assess the situation.

“So you’re saying NONE of you are brides? Not one?” the Tick says as he wrestles one dino to the ground, while the other two take turns launching themselves at him.

“We are not like you pathetic puny human-ish creatures!”

“But if any of us had a wedding it would go perfectly, just like our dastardly plans!”

Tick pauses in action, one fist frozen in a punch-ready position as his antennas flick thoughtfully. “When I got married there _was_ no bridezilla. Or brides!” A dino takes this opportunity to tackle Tick to the ground. The Tick continues his contemplation: “Or a wedding?”

“Did you have cake?” Ranny says, while attempting to headbutt Tick’s immovable form. Ty scoffs. “What, it’s not a wedding if there’s no cake.”

“We’re carnivores, we don’t even like cake! What matters is that everyone getting dressed up all nice.” Ty says in between chewing on Tick’s impenetrable bicep. “I’d wear _diamonds_ , if _someone_ would let us steal them fair and square!”

“We wore what we’re wearing now!” Tick lights up on hearing this new information. He parries the dinos’ attacks on autopilot, without pausing his contemplation of the wedding conundrum. “Superheroes are in style for any occasion!”

“Wow, what dorks.” Saurs cackles.

From the sidelines, Arthur deploys his wings, with the intention of getting the lay of the land, anything that could help them contain the dinos from either escape or further destruction. Unfortunately Tick’s antennas swerve at once towards the whoosh of the wings.

“Arthur! Hey there, chum!” Tick waves excitedly to Arthur, also drawing all the dinos’ attention to him. Arthur winces and waves back halfheartedly. “Hey, did we have a wedding this morning?”

“Uhh… Tick is this really the best time to be talking about this?” Arthur flaps narrowly out of reach as Saurs leaps up after him.

“Uh oh… trouble in paradise!” Ty cackles.

“Are you two actually married, or is this one of those codependent hero-sidekick arrangements?” Ranny says while wrestling with Tick. “One of those partnerships where you only live for each other, but instead of saying the L word, you let it fester for years, desperately unspoken... It’s so hard to tell these days.”

Ty says as she joins in the wrestling, “Dinos tell people how they feel about them straight to their face!” but soon after Tick creates a crater in the pavement with their heads.

“We're superior like that. And usually how we feel is HUNGRY!” Saurs has begun climbing up a nearby building facade until she’s high enough to leap at Arthur.

Arthur squeals and dodges. Her claws rake at him anyway, though thankfully not piercing the suit’s fabric. She can’t latch on and smashes back down on the ground beside the other two.

“I tell Arthur how I feel about him all the time, definitely to his face! Sometimes the back of his head. Not to the feet, though, usually.” While the dinos regroup, Tick stands with hands posed heroically on his hips, antennas flicking side to side. Arthur gestures frantically towards the dinos, trying to redirect Tick’s attention to them. Instead this draws Tick’s attention to Arthur. “Arthur, pal! You are the bright happy flame that this moth -- uh, this _Tick_ can’t help but fly towards! If I could fly, but that’s _your_ thing. We go together, you and I! You’re the pina to my colada! The tact to my tick! The chewed up wad of gum to the underside of my table, and there’s no unsticking this delightful mess. Like gum, you always taste like mixed berry flavor. Mmm!”

“Uh yeah, Tick, thanks.” Arthur’s voice strains with anxiety. The dinos, growling, lift themselves back up, shaky with effort but growing in anger. “You know I -- you know how I feel about you, but right now --”

“Vows!” Ranny blurts out. Arthur and Tick turn to stare at her. Meanwhile Ty and Saurs edge toward the various bags of jewels that have been tossed to the side during the battle. “That’s what else a wedding has. Making promises for your life together. Commitment to the future. You should do that uhhh _right now_.”

“By jumping jove, you’re right!” Tick’s antennas whirl around with excitement. “Hmm! Arthur, I promise to always smooch that souped-up noggin of yours, every night before your drowsy baby browns eyes shut sweetly into slumber.”

“That’s- that’s nice of you Tick.” Arthur notices the two dinos attempting to sneak off with the diamonds. He grits his teeth and swoops down to try to snatch it from them.

“Arthur chum, I promise to cook you breakfast!” Tick slings a friendly arm around Ranny before she can react, restraining her getaway. She thrashes and bites, but Tick treats it like a side-hug between buddies.

“I’d rather you didn’t Tick, remember that time with the gas line?” Arthur groans as he pulls on one of the jewelry bags. Ty refuses to relinquish it, so Arthur starts to flap higher. Saurs grabs onto Ty, weighing Arthur down. “A little help over here?!”

“To use one hand to hold yours and the other to punch evil in the face! To chase down any no-good knaves, with you dear chum, side-by-side!” Tick spreads his arms wide with grandeur, which releases Ranny.

“Or me one step behind…” Arthur tries to shake off the dinos, but their tenacious claws are lodged in the cloth of the bag. He hopes they don’t remember that they have teeth and try to gnaw off a leg or something. “Tick! Over there, you’re letting her get away.”

“This I vow!” Tick says grandly. Ranny frantically searches the battle rubble, apparently not willing to leave empty-handed now that Tick is preoccupied. “To submit to my ultimate destiny! A lifetime of _you!_ ”

“That’s-- that’s great Tick, really, but-- “ Arthur gasps, scuffling with the two dinos still. There’s a whirring noise coming from the wings that can’t be good.

“Well? Do you have vows also?”

“Uh- well yes, yes um sure. I wouldn’t- I mean I’d like some time to uh, to brainstorm? I can’t exactly give my- my attention right now--”

In the background, the shopkeeper creeps out of her shop. She spots the last abandoned bag of stolen goods, currently unnoticed.

Tick, while talking, leaps up a telephone pole, climbing up several stories, presumably to better converse with Arthur.

“Why wait for later when we’re living in the now! Forever is a little box on the horizon, just out of sight and at first you may think it’s a home for _ants_ , but when you get closer you realize -- it’s a skyscraper, Arthur! A thousand feet tall, kissing the clouds! Well we’re on that tower this very moment, poised on the precipice --”

“Tick, _please!_ This isn’t exactly great timing!” Arthur snaps. “I don’t- I don’t want to _die_.”

Ty rips a wing from Arthur. The three of them plummet from the air. They smash into the ground with a thud.

“Arthur!” Tick shouts. He grabs onto the telephone wire as he leaps in an attempt to slow his own fall. It tears from the pole, trailing after him.

Ranny charges towards the shopkeeper.

“Tick, save the civilian!” Arthur yells, lying prone and helpless.

Ty and Saurs recover from their fall enough to stand up.

Tick, in his mighty leap, happens to slam into Ranny. He runs around the three dinosaurs. The telephone wire twists around and around. Tick finishes it off with a giant bow, the three thieves tied up and not going anywhere.

“For newlyweds, you guys got issues to work out,” Ty complains.

“Oh, I know a stegosaurus who’s a marriage counselor, I can forward his contact info?” Ranny says.

Saurs grumbles something along the lines of “from jail.”

That taken care of, Tick rushes over to Arthur. He grabs his hand and heaves him up to standing. Arthur, lightheaded from the sudden verticality and adrenaline spent now that the fight’s over, wobbles and slumps into Tick. Tick slings an arm around his waist, holding him upright.

“Good job Tick,” Arthur, catching his breath. He means it as an apology for snapping at Tick.

“The City saved once again!”

Feeling awkward, Arthur moves to extract himself from Tick. His legs aren’t quite functional yet though, so he submits to the support. “We’re -- we’re good right? You and me?”

“We fight evil so we must be!”

“No I mean, you- you know that I- how much you mean to me right?” Arthur’s head is still ringing from being slammed into the ground, helmet or not. Tick looks baffled that he has to ask, antennas twitching. “I mean, sorry about the vows. Yours were very nice. I’ll- I’ll think about mine? Okay?”

“Keen!” Tick tousles Arthur’s hair, a little too hard, so that Arthur almost falls over again.

“Okay.” Arthur sighs with some relief. He tiptoes up to kiss Tick’s cheek. Tick turns his head, but before they meet him lip-to-lip they’re interrupted.

“Mammals and their squishy mouths, disgusting,” Ty says.

“Excuse you, I think they’re insects, actually?” Ranny points out.

“If you’re done finally, I’ll just be taking these back.” The shopkeeper hobbles over, giving the dinos a stink eye. She reclaims the various bags of stolen jewels and shuffles back to her destroyed storefront.

The moment disrupted, Arthur and Tick take the dino thieves to the authorities for questioning and prosecution.

\---

**Wedding**

“Once again, you have saved the City from certain destruction,” Mayor Blank says, leaning in to speak into the microphone on the podium set up outside City Hall. “This ceremony today is to show our gratification for your continued contribution to community safety. Yesterday we discovered that human-sized dinosaurs --”

“Tyrannysaurs!” Tick shouts. He and Arthur stand behind the Mayor on the steps. The gaggle of reporters in front flash their cameras and scribble notes furiously.

“Yes, well. Our response team uncovered a secret lair where the dinosaurs constructed a giant destructo beam, aimed to shoot a piece of the moon off so it would crash into the earth. Vengeance for trillions of years ago was their goal, for the time that ancient asteroid destroyed their ancestors. And the final piece of their plan required diamonds. For industrial qualities of course. Not as jewelry. Is that right?” Mayor Blank turns to a lab-coated assistant to the other side of him, who nods.

“Still a bit overly convoluted if you ask me,” Arthur says to Tick. “But I can appreciate the poetic justice of it, I suppose.”

“Fortunately the Tick apprehended these dinosaur thieves--” Mayor Blank continues.

“And Arthur!” Tick interjects.

“And -- yes, and Arthur, both of you, apprehended these evil reptiles before moon rocks could rain down upon us, pummelling our streets and lampposts and our children’s precious breakable heads.” The crowd in front remain hushed, as the mayor paints this picture.

“Still, I think you coulda done without quite so much destruction of your own,” Mayor Blank gestures around at the city streets. Down the way, the side of the building with the storefront is of course smashed, giant potholes riddle the pavement outside, and a team of linemen are currently fixing the telephone pole. He gives an awkward laugh and says in fake sotto voce. “We’ll talk about that later.”

Arthur grimaces, but Tick, oblivious as ever, shouts, “Sure!”

“But right now we’re here to celebrate this incredible partnership that patrols our city streets, every night and day --” Mayor Blank waxes on.

Arthur lets the words wash over him as he gazes out among the massive crowd gathered here to watch the event. There’s the slew of news crews of course, and various public officials, but also everyday people who have taken off work for the afternoon just to show their appreciation. Arthur recognizes the jewelry shopkeeper, looking particularly grumpy (or maybe that’s just how her face is). She’s still here to honor them though, so he gives a little wave. Dr. Karamozov is in the same general vicinity, taking a break from repairing Arthur’s wings, and waves back. There are the other superheroes gathered in various groups, beaming at a couple of their own being recognized.

But most importantly, there’s his mother and Walter over there, Kevin with the lobster kids (more toddlers than babies now) and Lobstercules, Goat and Ouma, and skulking in the back are Dot, Overkill, and presumably even Dangerboat is watching from a drone camera somewhere. Everyone he cares about is here to see him and Tick. Everyone who has seen Arthur at his worst, now beaming at him with jubilation, with pride. He used to feel so isolated, invisible even, but today there’s a whole city here looking up to him. It’s everything he ever dreamed about as a kid.

Tick claps a hand on Arthur’s shoulder, the hand where a ring would go if they were to wear them (an impractical adornment for their line of work, or for Tick’s general sensibilities). It then hits Arthur, truly hits him right in the squishy tender bits of his chest, that he doesn’t have to be alone ever again. After those fifteen years of being misunderstood, of not being believed, of feeling outside the realms of normal social communities and expectations, he’ll never have to be in that situation again -- or at least not by himself. He has the Tick, right beside him, for the foreseeable forever.

Now, today, after years of his mother and Dot, and yes Walter too, trying their best to keep Arthur from drowning and barely succeeding, everyone deserves to share this happiness with him.

“For those reasons, and many more, minus the civic destruction of course,” the mayor drones on, “we are here to bestow upon the Tick and Arthur the Good Citizens Medallion Award for Best Sidekick and Superhero Protectors of the City -- never decide award names by committee -- so if you could step forward. I will now pronounce you...”

An assistant hands the mayor a black velvet-lined box. Mayor Blank takes out one of two giant gold medals on thick white ribbons.

“Wait!” Arthur rushes forward to blurt into the mic. An awful reverb makes everyone cover their ears in the crowd. “I’m- uh, sorry, and thank you mayor so so much for this honor. If I could -- just- a few words? Um. It’s- I’m not sure how to tell you all how much this means to me. Not only this award, and fulfilling my uh my childhood dream of becoming a superhero, but, but standing here, next to this uh man? This _hero_ right here. Tick.”

Tick gives a bright grin and a hearty wave. Arthur takes Tick’s hand, very deliberately, drawing attention to that act.

“So many of you have seen me at my worst, or known me only as the- the boy from the photograph. That’s the entirety of who I was, for so many years -- despite the incredible support of my family -- but I uh. Never had anyone who understood the person who I was _meant_ to be, especially not myself, and I never imagined --”

Mayor Blank, looking at watch, whispers into Arthur’s ear, “Is this relevant? I have a meeting with the leader of the mole people in ten.” The crowd is starting to look depressed and somber at Arthur’s story.

Arthur clears his throat. “Anyway, I thought you all might want to know that- well maybe you’ll be interested in knowing that since yesterday, um actually since the day Tick and I met, but especially yesterday, and uh from now on, I will officially never have to be that kid again. And that’s because uh, we, uh got married. Officially.”

Silence over the crowd. Arthur grips the sides of the podium, heart pounding. Then there’s a wolf whistle from Dot. His mom beams and gestures with hand in a phone symbol that they need to talk later. Walter has a big thumbs up. Even Overkill almost cracks a smile, looking a little soft around the eyes.

Arthur smiles sheepishly, feeling the heat rise in his cheeks a little. “Yeah sorry, mom, we didn’t exactly have a wedding ceremony. But maybe this can be a stand in? Tick said some vows earlier, but I didn’t so uh, mm, I’m going to do that now. In front of everyone.”

Suddenly aware of the number of faces paying rapt attention to him, Arthur, overwhelmed, turns to focus only on Tick. He wipes his clammy palms on his suit. Tick has an open bright look on face, antennas like sunflowers turning towards the light, a heliotrope of love directed at _Arthur_.

“Hey Tick,” Arthur says with a shy fond smile. “Here goes: I- I- I uh promise to fight crime with you. Even when I’m scared, which is always. Even when I think I’m going to die, which is also always. Even then -- I promise to trust in our partnership and that we’ll have each other’s backs. I promise to always believe in _you_. I promise not to ignore the calls of destiny.” The Tick’s blue face grows blurry. Arthur retracts his goggles so he can wipe his eyes. “I promise to make you a pot of coffee every morning and to let you hug me whenever you- when I can. Um, to follow your lead in being true and good and open to uh, to people. Even - especially when it’s hard. You make me a better person, and I hope to do the same for you.” Arthur swallows. There’s something in his throat. “I promise, again and again and everyday with you, I promise to choose love.”

A loud sob from the audience and then a chorus of “Awwww.”

“You’re my hero, and I - I love you. Beyond reason. So, uh, so what do you say Tick. In front of, uh, of all these nice people.” Arthur darts a glance towards the crowd, but it’s still too much, so he turns back to Tick. “Do- do you also promise to- to love me. Forever?”

Tick’s antennas dip and then straighten. He beams. “That’s the thing about Destiny. I already have, chum! I already will.”

Loud applause from the crowd. Arthur launches himself at Tick, into a fierce gripping hug. Tick envelopes him in those giant blue arms, mildly crushing him in the best way.

Mayor Blank takes the opportunity to recomendeer the mic. “Um, that’s unexpected. But, um. Lovely. Congrats. So if you’re ready now, I’ll officially pronounce you Best Sidekick and Superhero, Good Citizen Protectors et cetera of the City.”

With all the gravitas of a minister at the altar, albeit one who has an appointment he’s already late for, Mayor Blank bestows the medals around their necks.

Arthur’s leftover anxiety from his speech fades, his face gradually brightening until a smile tugs at his lips. Then he’s grinning, almost glowing with happiness, like a balloon being pumped with joy. He almost expects himself to start floating skyward. Tick anchors him back to the ground, an arm looped across Arthur’s shoulder down to his waist, squeezing him into his side.

Spotting a garland mounted on the podium, with the ludicrously long acronym of the award printed in a banner in the center, Arthur throws it into the audience like a bride’s bouquet. Several people, including Flexon’s long wiggly arm, reach for it. Despite their best efforts it smacks Overkill right in the face. Rage flickers across his face for a moment, but with Dot laughing at him, he softens. Enough, at least, not to shred the garland for his offense. He rolls his electronic eyes and picks it up off the ground.

Joan and Walter clutch each other openly weeping.

Ouma yells, “Kiss already!” Sage and Bronze Star join in with, “Get him!”

Not wanting to deny their audience, or rather -- their own love, caught up in the high emotions of the event, Tick and Arthur at last lean in for a long, languorous kiss to seal the deal. The crowd fades away, until it’s only them.

They’ve always been together. Right from the beginning and into the bright happy unknown of years to come.


End file.
